Why The Early Muslims Loved Winter | LATEST Khutbah by Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy

Summary

Winter as a spiritual opportunity

The khutbah presents winter as a believer’s “spring”: longer nights and shorter days provide an opportunity to renew faith and increase worship. The speaker quotes Mu‘adh ibn Jabal urging people not to let long nights disappear into sleep and to protect the purity of their Islam from sin.

Ibn Mas‘ud is quoted welcoming winter because its long nights allow more prayer and its short days make fasting easier. The speaker notes that fasting was physically difficult for Ibn Mas‘ud, who sometimes prioritized prayer; winter offered him an opportunity to do both.

Worship and the rewards of difficulty

Winter worship does not have to involve extreme hardship. Even performing wudu with cold water can be an act of patience. A hadith in Sahih Muslim is cited, promising that completing ablution despite difficulty can erase sins and raise a person’s rank.

The sermon also describes early Muslims deliberately using discomfort to stay awake. Malik is said to have related that Safwan ibn Sulaym prayed on a rooftop in winter. Habiba al-Adawiyya is quoted describing the quiet of night, when others sleep and worldly doors close, while the door to God remains open.

The value of night prayer

Night prayer is presented as a source of spiritual strength, clarity, peace, and honor. The Prophet is quoted encouraging it as a practice of the righteous before us—a way to draw closer to God, resist sin, have sins forgiven, and benefit the body.

The khutbah connects private nighttime worship with the Qur’anic promise of a reward beyond human imagination: just as worshippers conceal their devotion, God has concealed extraordinary rewards for them.

A practical way to begin

The speaker encourages listeners to make worship manageable rather than setting an ambitious goal and giving up:

• Keep the obligatory prayers, especially Fajr. Voluntary night prayer is not a substitute for them.
• Start with a small amount of night prayer. It can be performed at any point during the night, including after ‘Isha or before Fajr.
• Begin with a short prayer. Two voluntary rak‘ahs or a brief recitation can be a meaningful start.
• Aim for ten Qur’anic verses as a modest starting point. The sermon cites a report that this keeps a person from being recorded among the heedless that night; larger recitations are associated with greater ranks of devotion.
• Use the season for voluntary fasting, where possible. Short winter days may make fasting more manageable, and prayer and fasting can be combined.
• Treat fasting as more than abstaining from food and drink. It trains sincerity and self-restraint, including restraint from seeking recognition, revenge, instant gratification, or always having the last word.

The speaker cites a hadith stating that fasting is especially for God and that its reward is not specified in the same way as other deeds. A report in Sahih al-Bukhari is also cited: fasting one voluntary day for God’s sake distances a person from the Fire by seventy years.

The broader lesson

Winter is framed as a limited, recurring opportunity to make up for spiritual neglect and build habits that benefit one’s relationship with God and service to others. The sermon closes with a prayer that listeners act on what they have heard rather than letting their response remain only words and listening.

Speakers and sources featured

• Speaker: Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy
• Religious figures quoted or discussed: The Prophet Muhammad; Mu‘adh ibn Jabal; Ibn Mas‘ud; ‘Umar; Safwan ibn Sulaym, in a report attributed to Malik; Habiba al-Adawiyya; and Ibn Rajab
• Texts and reports cited: The Qur’an; a hadith in Sahih Muslim concerning ablution in difficulty; a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari concerning the reward for voluntary fasting; and other prophetic reports on night prayer and voluntary prayer whose collections are not identified in the subtitles.